1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a test module, a test apparatus, and a test method. In particular, the present invention relates to a test module, a test apparatus, and a test method suitable for testing a multitude of relatively small semiconductor devices.
2. Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-249735, for example, discloses a pattern generator and a test apparatus that can accurately and continuously generate test patterns for testing electronic devices. This pattern generator stores test data blocks in a cache memory in an order indicated by instruction information, and thereafter sequentially outputs these test data blocks as the test pattern. A plurality of these pattern generators are controlled by a single control section to test a single stand-alone electronic device. When these pattern generators controlled by the single control section are supplied with a single set of instruction information, each pattern generator may not be able to independently generate the test pattern.
If the pattern generators described above are used to test relatively small electronic devices having few terminals for testing, the number of pattern generators controlled by the single control section exceeds the number of terminals for testing. In other words, excess pattern generators that are not connected to a terminal are left unused, which decreases the overall efficiency of the test apparatus.